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Days after successfully defending his WEC bantamweight title for the first time, Miguel Torres (34-1) can't wait to step back in the cage for another war with the man he defeated Sunday night, Yoshiro Maeda (23-5-2)
Torres reflected on the bout while a guest on Tuesday's edition of TAGG Radio (www.taggradio.com), a content partner of MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).
"He's a guy that I would love to fight again," Torres said about Maeda. "We're going to have to fight again, for the fans' and for our sakes. He didn't want the fight to stop. He's a warrior, and he wanted to keep going. He just couldn't see out of his eye. We'll for sure have to do it again in the future."
While the Urijah Faber-Jens Pulver main event received the bulk of the promotion and attention heading into WEC 34, Torres and Maeda put on an exciting back-and-forth battle that some are saying deserves to be considered among the best of the year. Torres eventually earned the victory when Maeda's battered and swollen right eye forced the cage-side doctor to put a halt to the action at the conclusion of the third round.
Torres explained that, though the fight did not go as expected, the Indiana native was pleased with the outcome.
"The fight didn't go the way I planned it," Torres said. "I knew it was going to be a war. I wanted it to be a little bit more cleaner fight than that, but my emotions got the better of me. [Maeda] cut me real early in the fight, and I just kind of went crazy after that, man. My whole game plan went out the window until the third round. It was an exciting fight, just a little sloppy in the beginning. But the fans really liked it, and I was happy to be able to defend my belt in such a style like that."

reported that Sergei Kharitonov is still training hard, and has no intentions of quitting the fight game. He also reported that Sergei still has plans to join DREAM, as soon as they offer him a deal that suits him better.

Take his career as a whole and Matt Hughes -- who competes Saturday for the first time since a second devastating loss to Georges St. Pierre -- is unquestionably the most accomplished 170-pound athlete to ever don a pair of open-fingered Ouano gloves.
With a list of casualties including B.J. Penn, Sean Sherk, and even St. Pierre himself, Hughes has run the gauntlet in one of the deepest talent pools in the sport. Yet the defining image fans will carry into his bout against Thiago Alves in London's O2 arena is his arm being torqued at unnatural angles at the hands of St. Pierre last December.
That sobering defeat could turn out to be the fulcrum on which Hughes' career now swings. Snapped from his perpetual dominance of the division, he may be more cognizant of his physical limitations and opponents may be less fearful of his abilities.
In properly melodramatic form: the St. Pierre loss could be the beginning of the end.
It wouldn't be the first time that five or 10 minutes managed to stall career momentum for good. Other athletes have had experiences that reduced them to shells of their former selves. Inversely, some fights have taken fighters to new levels of popularity and performance.
The psychological and physical reverberations of a good beat down -- taken or given -- can last the duration of a fighter's ring life.
Some examples, in ascending order of impact:

At one time, UFC 85 was looking as if it might be one of the cards of the year. With a main event of Liddell against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, it almost didn't matter who was on the rest of the card.
Despite injury, Chuck Liddell moving on and headed to London

WEC lightweight "Razor" Rob McCullough (16-4) was able to avenge the first loss of his career with a split-decision victory over Kenneth Alexander this past Sunday night. Now the 31-year-old hopes to avenge a more stinging defeat: the February loss of his WEC lightweight title to Jamie Varner.
McCullough talked about his victory and a shot at redemption on Tuesday's edition of TAGG Radio (www.taggradio.com), a content partner of MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).
"It felt great," McCullough said of his performance. "At one point I realized I got this fight, dude. He's moving backward and away from me. I wanted to rush in and clip him. You know, do something stupid. Then I went, 'Eh, I'll just wait for him to shoot and try and knee him in the face.'"
The cautious performance earned the Huntington Beach fighter the victory, but it did little to win over the fans in attendance. McCullough said he was too focused to notice the booing coming from the ARCO Arena seating.
"In smaller arenas, when I fight it seems like I can hear people in the crowd," McCullough explained. "I hear random people saying stuff and I can really listen to them. And before, I'd hear booing and I'd be like, 'Oh, I've got to pick up the pace here.' And that's when I would do something like a flying punch or something. I kind of was like so in the zone for this one. I was so focused that I kind of cut everything out when the bell rang. ... So, everything went out the window, and I was zoned in on him, and I didn't really hear too much. So that was kind of a good thing."

It seems that his Saturday fight against Matt Hughes at UFC 85 was "perfect timing" for Thiago Alves. A win not only means he'll have beaten perhaps the greatest welterweight ever, but it almost certainly means he'll be the #1 contender and get the first shot at the Georges St. Pierre-Jon Fitch winner.

Sources inside Andre Gusmao's camp have confirmed the fighter will make his UFC debut at UFC 87. He was originally expected to have debuted at UFC 81, but those plans were scrapped when it was discovered that Gusmao was still under contract to the IFL.

The Ultimate Fighter 8 features former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir and current interim heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira as the head coaches. Two of Mir’s assistant coaches have been revealed according to a report on Tatame.com. Rafael Alejarra will serve as strength and conditioning coach, while multiple time Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion Robert Drysdale will take on the role, of course, of jiu-jitsu coach.
I haven't watched a single episode of TUF 7, but i am telling you right now i will watch every single episode of TUF 8 if only to witness Robert Drysdale. for a JJ fan like me this season will be incredible. i get to watch 2 of the best JJ fighters in MMA and also one of the best pure JJ fighters there is. i am really stoked that Drysdale will be one of Mir's coaches

Her undoubtedly impressive performance against Kaitlin Young (Pictures) this past Saturday night pushed her career mark to 6-0. For four of those six fights, Carano came in overweight. Against Julie Kedzie (Pictures) and Tonya Evinger (Pictures), Carano was a fraction of a pound over the one-pound allowance for 140-pound contests. Overweight, yes, but out of line? Debatable. However, this cannot make up for four and four-and-a-half pounds overweight Carano entered her bouts with Rosi Sexton and Young, respectively.

According to a press release from Affliction, Donald Trump will be partnering with the clothing company turned MMA promoter in a capacity to be revealed at a press conference tomorrow. The full press releases comes courtesy of Five Ounces of Pain:

The new issue of Sports Illustrated is out, and while the mag didn't spill much ink over last week's major EliteXC/CBS show, they did give a little attention to the card's already overexposed headliner.

The long arm of Zuffa law apparently extends to estranged former champions who write books and wear their belts on the covers.
Tito Ortiz — who just satisfied the final fight on his contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) — has been served with a cease and desist because his recently released autobiography, “This is Gonna Hurt,” violates the intellectual property rights of the mixed martial arts promotion, according to MMAPayout.com.
“The Huntington Beach Bad Boy,” according to the report, needed to get the stamp of approval from the UFC to sport the belt on the cover of the book. And he apparently did not get the green light or overlooked the clause in his contract.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com contacted James Thompson via phone at his home in England on Wednesday and he granted us an exclusive interview. During the interview, Thompson was candid about his feelings regarding his main event fight vs. Kimbo Slice during the debut of “Saturday Night Fights” on CBS. Thompson held nothing back and addressed all the questions we had pertaining to his fight vs. Slice.

This is something that I never thought I’d type:
Donald Trump — who has forged a partnership with Affliction MMA — will tomorrow announce the acquisition of former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski at a noon press conference at Trump Tower in New York, N.Y., according to MMARated.com.
In addition, “The Pitbull” will take on Ben Rothwell (as expected) during the debut pay-per-view (PPV) event for the promotion at the at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on July 19.
Trump is also expected to reveal more details on his partnership with Affliction MMA, which according to the report, he owns a “significant amount” of the upstart promotion.
This is about to get real interesting … as if it isn’t already. Stay tuned. In the meantime, to get some more background on Trump’s involvement with mixed martial arts click here.

Hopefully Thales Leites is avoiding black cats and walking under ladders this week. He is scheduled to face Nathan Marquardt Saturday night in London at UFC 85, a bout that has been in the works for more than a year and a half. But due to issues regarding attaining a visa and injuries, both previously scheduled dates for this fight have fallen apart.
Mere days away, it looks as if this time Marquardt vs. Leites will finally happen, pitting two of the top middleweights in the Ultimate Fighting Championship against each other.
Leites has a strong background in competitive jiu-jitsu and enters the Octagon at the O2 Arena with a 12-1 professional record in mixed martial arts. His only loss in the UFC was in his promotional debut, dropping a decision to Martin Kampmann. He has since won three straight.
The only seven-time King of Pancrase in Japan and with more than 30 professional bouts to his credit, Marquardt has gone 5-1 in the UFC, his only misstep being a TKO loss to current middleweight champion Anderson Silva.